pedablogical

Poem 3: Green Eggs and Ham

Apr 03

tengrrlpicture books, poetry dr. seuss No Comments

Weren’t expecting this one next, were you? I confessed my love for Dr. Seuss a couple of years ago, so I may as well admit that Green Eggs and Ham is one of my favorite poems. How can you look at these lines and not smile?

Do you like
green eggs and ham?
 
I do not like them,
Sam-I-am.
I do not like
green eggs and ham.

My favorite Dr. Seuss video ever isn’t the classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Admittedly I love that to, but I delight far more in Jesse Jackson’s reading of Green Eggs and Ham.

Why do I like Green Eggs and Ham? I KNOW Green Eggs and Ham. At any moment, you might hear me adapting the situation in front of me into the rhyme and rhythm of the poem. Don’t believe me? Just a few minutes ago, the local NPR talk featured Virginia Governor Kaine’s veto of a bill that would "allow gun owners with concealed-carry permits to have firearms in establishments that serve alcohol, as long as they don’t drink."

At the end of a related interview, a state legislator who opposed Kaine’s decision said, "People should be able to carry their guns in a bar. Or in a car." I have no idea why he tacked on that "in a car," but I was off, creating a little dialogue for Sam and the governor:

Do you want
to hide a gun?
 
I do not want to,
Sam-I-am.
I do not want
to hide a gun.
 
Would you hide
one in a bar?
Would you hide
one in a car?
 
I would not hide
one in a bar.
I would not hide
one in a car.
I do not want to
hide gun.
I do not like them
Sam-I-am.

I know. I know. Not really much of a children’s book. For it to fit the plot, the governor character will have to hide a gun, use it in some life-changing way, and then he can exclaim, "Say! I like to hide a gun! I do! I like to, Sam-I-am!"

Pathetic, huh? I can summon the opening lines of The Canterbury Tales or The Waste Land effortlessly and I can allude to passages from hundreds of other poems—but Dr. Seuss is what comes to me most simply. It’s probably not shocking to anyone to hear that I wish I could write children’s and young adult books.

Yes, I’m an amateur medievalist who wants to be both a modern poet and Dr. Seuss. It’s a curse really. Every poem I try to write ultimately takes on a Dr. Seuss cadence:

Do you want to
eat a peach?
Do you want to
walk the beach?

It just doesn’t fit the imagery does it? Probably best for me to just read Green Eggs and Ham (and keep my Seussian poetry to myself).

Musing on Martin’s Big Words

Jan 12

tengrrlChildren's/YA Lit, journal, picture books No Comments

got loads of cleaning and organizing done, though no real
writing. looking for some kind of small magnetic board for the office,
but all i seem able to find are big magnetic white boards. not exactly
the ideal solution

have been thinking about the MLK lesson plan that i’ve been
working on. letting it simmer mainly. i’m still sort of between feeling
unsure if it’s a useful lesson or just a lesson with a social agenda without
any other real purpose. i
have it has a 3-5 lesson focusing on the Martin’s
Big Words book. have students talk about the notion of ‘big’ words
and then go out to choose their own ‘big’ words. the other alternative
is to give them MLK quotes and have them choose ‘big’ words which they
compose into a found poem, or something of that sort. i dunno. maybe it’s
just that the theory section seems so gaggy to me right now:

To talk about Dr. King’s life is to talk about horrible
things: racism, bombings, murders, assassination. Yet it is also to
discuss wonderful things: love, peace, harmony, pride, determination.
What do we tell children about the "bad" things in the world?
How can we "give [them] hope… provide [them] with reasons to
embrace life and its possibilities" (Stanley 41)?

Ultimately, Stanley resolves, "Education is the only solution
that I know to these dilemmas. Education, understood not as technique
or training, not as schooling, but as part and parcel of ‘the engagement
of being human,’ i.e., the shared act of making meaning of meanings
inherited from others" (41).

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the NCTE Executive
Committee issued a statement
that concluded similarly: "We assert that the long-term response
to violence and cruelty — indeed the only truly effective response
— is education, an education in which social justice and the dignity
of all people are held paramount."

In this activity, students focus on this kind of educational goals.
Through an exploration of Dr. King’s use of non-violence protest and
the power of words as a weapon for social justice, students learn
more about Dr. King’s life and think about their own impact on the
future. And by turning from King’s words to their own hopes for the
future, the activity makes specifically highlights hope for the future.

Further Reading
Stanley, Timothy J. 1999. "A
Letter to My Children: Historical Memory and the Silences of Childhood."
Teaching for a Tolerant World, Grades K-6: Essays and Resources.
Ed. Judith P. Robertson. Urbana: NCTE. Pp. 34-44.
     Stanley’s article focuses on talking
to his children about whether Nazis are "bad guys." While
not directly about King or African American history, the piece is
a relevant discussion of the things that we do and do not talk to
children and students about, when we discuss the, how we discuss them,
and why we discuss them.